In the early 1990's there was a fundamental change in the performance and capability of gaming machines initiated by the incorporation of bill acceptors into such machines. Bill acceptors are devices which receive paper currency (“currency”) and, using a validator having both hardware and software components, the received currency is scanned with a variety of sensors and the sensor information is analyzed to determine (1) authenticity and (2) denomination of the currency from the scanned data. If the scanned currency is determined to be authentic currency, e.g. a United States $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100 bill or other legal tender currency, it is transported to a cashbox within the bill acceptor for storage.
Based upon the denomination of the accepted currency, a signal is sent from the validator to the host machine's controller or processor to cause the machine to accumulate a corresponding amount of credits within the machine's credit meter representing the cash value or credits available for purchasing products or wagering, in the case of a gaming machine. As the user purchases products from or plays the machine, the purchase price or wager is debited from the credit meter. In the case of a gaming machine, wins are either accumulated as credits or paid out in coins. Acceptors of this type are known and are discussed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,039 issued Jan. 26, 1999 to Suzuki.
Through the use of such bill validators, casinos have been required to carefully monitor the content of cashboxes within the gaming machine. However, the transfer of information from the bill validator is made generally through an existing central processing system which requires complex software to assure validity and security of the data from the bill validator.
Accordingly there is a need for a method and a system which allows a bill validator to provide reports, particularly for the production of a bar coded report for a gaming machine. Preferably one report indicates the content of the cashbox. Such a system can be used with a casino's central processing system without modification of the host game machine.
The above described and many other features and attendant advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.